Amber Flag Award 2022-2023
This year at St. Mary’s P.S., we were awarded the Pieta House Amber flag. The Amber Flag is an initiative which recognises the individual efforts of schools to create safe, healthy, positive and inclusive environments that support mental health and well-being.
An Amber Flag raising ceremony was held in the school during final week of term in June where all children came together to celebrate the achievement. Sixth class spoke about the various goals reached and treated us to a performance of their graduation dances. All children sang ‘We Are One’ by Wild Youth while the flag was hoisted up, to finish off the year on a very positive high note!
Our first goal was to hold our Friendship week with the simple theme of ‘kindness is key’. Some of the activities we took part in included a Cyber Safety Talk for 5th and 6th classes, assembly with prizes, an art competition, reading buddies, yard games, friendship surveys, and positive displays around school.
Another one of our goals was to hold an inclusion week. Our focus for this week was ‘Neurodiversity’ and autism. We had lots of lessons during the week about how all of our brains are ‘wired’ differently. We had our fantastic special interest day and assemblies to share all that had been learned.
Through the Food Dudes programme, we promoted healthy eating. where all classes got to try out a selection of fresh fruit and vegetables for a couple of weeks. We learned about the benefits of eating healthier foods and having a varied diet.
Our two Mental Health Awareness fun days in April were a highlight of the year. An array of fun activities was organised for the children, and sixth class students played a huge part by helping out at the various stations. The children also took part in an art competition to promote positive mental health. We raised a fantastic €850 for Pieta House from donations over these two days!
Sport has been proven to help physical and mental health. At St. Mary’s, we have a wide variety of sport played in the school; athletics, hurling, camogie and football to name a few. The enthusiasm for sport keeps growing with every year! We thank all the teachers who volunteer to train students and instil in us a love for sport and fitness.
Finally, we would like to thank the teachers who helped out with all our wellbeing promotion; planning the various initiatives and helping the children to engage with them. Most importantly well done to each and every student who helped to make this flag a success. We hope to continue to make St Mary’s a safe, healthy, and positive environment, where students’ and teachers’ wellbeing matters.